Introduction: TWSU DIY Speaker Kit (Origami Paper Speaker)

This guide is one of many that are meant to show what cool things you can do with our kits

In case you haven't heard of Technology Will Save Us, we are a London based haberdashery for technology and education dedicated to helping people to produce and not just consume technology. We design technology kits which you assemble and solder yourself that teaches you about electronics, technology and making. You can find more info about what we do on our website

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LET'S START

Step 1: Things You Will Need

First we need to get all the things together, we need to make out Origami Speaker

Step 2: Cutting the Box in Half

We are going to use the box the speaker kit came in, as the housing for our origami speaker. We only need half of the box so we cut the box in half as shown in the pictures.

Step 3: Mounting the Amplifier

Now we take one half of the box we just cut (the right hand one) and am going to install the amplifier in it.

1. Take the half-box and place it with the cut side facing towards you and the sticker-label facing up
2. Position the amplifier with the batteries facing down and the controls facing the left on the left side of the box
3. Gently press the volume control against the inside wall of the box so that it leaves an indentation
4. Mark that indentation with a pen and cut out an opening large enough to fit the volume control through
5. Once the volume control is through the opening, repeat the same process for both the power switch and the input jack as shown in the images
6. Fix the amplifier with some double sided sticky pads to the wall of the box as shown in the second last image
7. If you have done it right you can close the box and it should look like the last image

Step 4: Mounting the Exciter

With the amplifier fitted we move on to mount the exciter on the front of the box (the side with the sticker-label)

1. Mark the middle of the box using a ruler as shown in the images
2. Mount the exciter with double sided sticky-pads on the mark (Make sure that the wires are facing away from the cut side of the box
3. Cut a small hole just below where the wires connect to the exciter and feed them through

Step 5: Folding the Origami Speaker Membrane

The DIY Speaker Kitcomes with an exciter instead of a ready made speaker. This exciter can turn almost any surface into a speaker by placing it on said surface. Paper seems to work pretty well, which invites for some creative origami projects to make a really cool looking speaker.

We settled for a simple and beautiful fold that can be done in 5 min or less.

For this we need a thicker A4 sheet of paper (120gsm)

1. We need to cut it down to a square first with each side measuring 210mm
2. Fold the paper over halfway diagonally, make sure not to crease the entire length, leaving the middle uncreased
3. Repeat the same process with the other diagonal
4. Once that is done you should get something that resembles the second last image
5. Now we push the middle of the paper down, so that the paper turns into a shallow bowl as shown in the last image

Step 6: Mounting the Origami Membrane

To improve the sound quality we are going to add a paper disc between the origami membrane and the exciter.

1. Use any small round object you can find (we used the camera lens cap) and mark a circle on a piece of thin card (200gsm or more)
2. Cut that piece of card until you get a small disc which you attach, using double sided tape, to the bulging side of the origami membrane. (Keep it as close to the middle as possible)
3. Using the double sided tape that is already attached to your exciter and mount the origami membrane with the paper disc on it.

Once that is accomplished, you are done with making the origami speaker using our DIY Speaker Kit

Now you can plug in your phone and start rocking your beautiful Origami Speaker.

We are however not done yet. How about mounting the speaker to a wall?

Step 7: Wall Mount Your Speaker

Using double sided sticky pads, we can easily mount the Origami Speaker on almost any wall. Make sure that the sticky pads have enough grip, otherwise you will be risking your Speaker and your phone!

Connect the speaker using the cable that came with the DIY Speaker Kitto your phone and play your favourite tunes. You can place your phone in the box as shown in the last image.

TIP: You could always use some screws to fasten the speaker to the wall